1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the general field of playback of recorded conducting media or conductors, more specifically, an apparatus and method that reduces electronic relaxation noise, also known as "linger noise", that exists in information recording medium.
2. Description of Related Art and Information
The utility of the present invention is based on fundamental laws of nuclear and electronic physics at the electron level, particularly with respect to electron gas relaxation phenomena in conductors immediately preceding the initiation of normal current flow per ohms law.
For current to flow through a medium conductor or a conducting plate (conductor) that involves electromagnetic (EM) effects in recording and playback, and in transmission of signals, and thus to provide signals through normal circuitry, conducting plates, etc., a finite time is required before the flow is established, and before stability, referred to as a "stable signal" or stable flow pattern, can be established. This time delay is referred to as electron gas relaxation time.
The relaxation phenomenon involves at least three major stages, all of which must be substantially completed before the relaxation time is actually complete, and coherent signals or patterns are being transmitted in the conductor. Further, the relaxation time involves damped oscillations.
The first stage in the relaxation time is the relaxation of the electrical charge density. Electrons initially distributed throughout the conductor are "excited" by taking on excess energy in the form of potential gradients across them. They are now substantially involved in working their way to the surface, since most of the current flow must occur on the surface of the conductor, not in its interior. If the total charge is not zero, a very highly non-linear first phase results, and the division between first and second stages is substantially blurred.
A simplifying assumption is made, that the initial charge is zero, so that the compensated charge fluctuations may be described by linear equations. Then the relaxation of electrical charge density can be assumed to be mostly independent of the initial conditions and of the size and shape of the conductor.
Treating the Drude electron gas model as applicable, and assuming each electron is independent of the rest, damped harmonic oscillator equations result for the relaxation. This yields a short relaxation time for stage 1. This erroneously short relaxation time basically results from assuming that the electrons move rather independently and are de-coupled. With coupling remaining as is almost always the case, a combination of stage 1 and stage 2 actually applies immediately, and sometimes an extra combination of stage 3 as well Much "noise" known as small field perturbations in random directions, is present during phase 1. This is because of the random motion of the electrons in all directions, as the addition of the excess energy to them essentially results in an increase in the average electron's kinetic energy and increases the violence and frequency of their collisions with the lattice and with each other.
The second stage is the expulsion of the electric and magnetic fields to the exterior of the conductor, and the expulsion of the excited electrons as axial currents (on the average) to the surface. This electron movement during the second stage is still immersed in the midst of a great collision/violence among the electrons in the electron gas in the conductor. Accordingly, there are erratic electric and magnetic fields from the erratically moving charges, whose violent movements are, in fact, expelling these fields from the conductor and in all directions in the conductor. Consequently, there is much noise, distortion and scattering going on in this stage.
In the third stage, the electrons reach the skin of the conductor, resulting in a marked decrease in collision frequency and violence. The relaxation process terminates with the slower ohmic and radiative damping of the surface currents.
As an end result of the three relaxation stages, a sinusoidal charge disturbance is formed and propagated in the conductor with a phase velocity V.sub.p of roughly 1.times.10.sup.8 cm/sec, or roughly 10.sup.6 meters per second. Further, this disturbance is extremely noisy. It is also moving far slower than the speed of light, hence "lingers" in a circuit after each and every stimulation, directly adding noise to slightly succeeding "signal stimuli." The "signal" moves down the conductor at nearly C, the velocity of light in space.
The net result in a continual digital process is that the 3-stage relaxation phenomena continually generates lingering noise signals in a circuit. This noise is continually produced both when signals are initially recorded on a conductor, increasing the noise in the signal actually recorded, and again when the conducting medium is later optically re-stimulated to detect the recorded "signal and noise". Examples of conducting media are audio compact disc, CD-ROM (read only memory), video laser disc, photo-CD and photgraphic film. The net result is that continual relaxation noise is added to both the recording and playback stages of any recording process utilizing such a conducting medium. Relaxation noise is also added to any signal translated down or in a conductor and through circuits.
In searching prior art that disclosed magnetic and/or modulated EM devices designed for processing or clarifying conducting media for the purpose of reducing relaxation noise, no references were located that either disclosed or anticipated the present invention.